


Pencil

by Beth Harker (Beth_Harker)



Category: Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-30
Updated: 2017-04-30
Packaged: 2019-09-30 11:10:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 444
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17222936
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beth_Harker/pseuds/Beth%20Harker
Summary: Davey has been feeling out of sorts.





	Pencil

Davey tensed when somebody grabbed him around the shoulder from behind, and relaxed when he realized that it was Jack. The day was too hot for close contact, the air so stuffy and humid that even the stained undershirt that Davey had stripped down to felt like too much, but Jack was Jack, and Jack was grinning exuberantly, and Davey wanted him there.

“Sell all your papes?” Davey asked, trying for casual.

“No. I gave ‘em away.”

“What?” That didn’t sound right. Davey looked over at Jack just in time to catch the other boy rolling his eyes. He felt his skin prickle with the realization that Jack was being sarcastic, and he’d detected it just a second too late. He clenched his fists, and the unclenched them—once, twice. Sarah said it was a nervous habit of his. He hoped Jack didn’t notice.

“You see any papes on me?” Jack asked.

“No, ‘cause you sold 'em. Every last one. Any fool would know that.”

“I know one who didn’t,” Jack told him blithely. He tightened his grip on Davey for half a second, then released it, walking forward without a glance back to see whether Davey was following or not.

Probably Jack didn’t mean anything by it. He definitely didn’t mean anything by it. He was just teasing. Friends teased each other. Even Crutchie, who was he nicest person in the world, had made fun of Jack the other day, for trying to dance and tripping over his own feet.

The truth was, Davey had been feeling out of sorts all morning. It had started with his pa lecturing him for chewing the end of his pencil while he was trying to decide what to write on his daily to-do list, and progressed to his mother asking him too many questions about why he still needed to write his list, when homework and class schedules had been replaced by a less easy to itemize routine of selling papers, selling papers, selling some more papers, then hanging around with his hooligan friends.

( _Hooligan_ , Davey supposed, had been said with a certain amount of fondness. His mother liked that he suddenly had friends.)

Jack stopped walking. “You coming or not?”

“Coming.” Davey picked up what was left of his own papers.

“Good, 'cause Jacobi’s has a buy one get one free deal on water this time 'a day.” Jack smiled crookedly, and even though the water there was always free, Davey supposed he could accept the invitatio.

“Y'know I was just ribbing you about the papes, right?” Jack asked as Davey fell into step next to him.

Davey smiled. “Yeah,” he said. “I know that.”


End file.
